Speed leads are used in the construction industry to speed up the building of brick corners, instead of using a level to keep the corners plumb.
For many years bricklayers have used various devices to build faster leads, for example, wooden two-by-fours or metal devices fastened to the building and having a line stretched from corner to corner, secured to the lead by a wooden or plastic block. The brick is then laid to the line using the two-by-four or metal lead to keep the brick plumb on the corner. Frequently these line blocks are kicked or knocked off the speed lead, thus becoming a projectile which can strike a bricklayer and cause serious injury. Using conventional types of speed leads also makes it difficult to lay the corner bricks level, because the mud used to lay the brick tends to become squashed between the brick and the speed lead. As a result, the brick is either held up or pushed away from the lead, causing it to be out of plumb and smearing the end of the brick with mud, which is unsightly.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate these drawbacks and provide a speed lead which will enable bricklayers to lay a plumb, level corner faster, safer, neater, and more accurately than is possible with devices currently known in the industry. With my new speed lead, it is nearly impossible to accidentally kick or knock off the clip on the lead, because of the torque on the clip. When laying brick to my new speed lead, the bricks are laid into the lead and held in place by two pieces of strap metal which have their edges placed at right angles to each other. Because the narrow edges of the metal hold the brick in place, the mud between the bricks can be easily forced out and allowed to hang out or drop off. This enables the bricklayer to easily see almost the entire brick and mud joint, thus assuring a neat, plumb, and level brick job.